Jackson Free Press

It sounds like the people of Pakistan will soon be the wiser when it comes to disaster relief -- according to the Clarion-Ledger, after a stop in D.C., Mayor Frank Melton will be headed to Pakistan on a week-long trip to allow the Pakistani president a glimpse into the knowledge Melton gained here in Jackson during Katrina.

Mayor Frank Melton plans on meeting Shaukat Aziz, prime minister of Pakistan, on Monday in Washington, D.C., in preparation for a weeklong trip to the country next month.

Melton is scheduled to meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to discuss disaster recovery. The government estimates about 3.5 million people were left homeless following an October earthquake that killed 73,000, destroyed villages, leveled schools and wiped away infrastructure.

Click here for the whole "brief".

Previous Commentsshow

Yeah, it's brief all right. Too brief. Did anyone bother to ask for more details on what he's going to tell these people? I find this part interesting: The Pakistani government will pay for the trip, [Melton] said, "but if I had to, I'd pay out of my own pocket." Since they're struggling to eat and stay warm over there right now, I think he should reimburse them. Better yet, give them more than what they paid so they can survive.

LatashaWillis

Jan 21 2006

The Pakistani government shells out lots of money to foreign dignitaries, which pays dividends in terms of foreign aid, etc., so I'm not sure I have any obejctions in terms of whether Pakistan is spending its money wisely. My concern is more that Melton offers Musharraf advice he actually takes, so his approach to finding bin Laden becomes to approach completely random caves with 20,000 soldiers and half the tank cavalry in tow, with a backwards baseball cap and "POLICE" written across his bulletproof vest in Arabic. I just don't think that would be productive. Cheers, TH

Tom Head

Jan 21 2006

My concern is more that Melton offers Musharraf advice he actually takes, so his approach to finding bin Laden becomes to approach completely random caves with 20,000 soldiers and half the tank cavalry in tow, with a backwards baseball cap and "POLICE" written across his bulletproof vest in Arabic. I just don't think that would be productive. Not only counterproductive, but irrational! How much does Melton know about diplomacy? I hope someone "briefs" him on it.

LatashaWillis

Jan 22 2006

Maybe Melton will help get Osama. Of course, he will have to give 2% of the reward to the MBN settlement. 8-p Like Tom points out there is no money loss and may foster some goodwill for MS/USA; but, there are 100's of other MSian's that would be better representatives of our relief efforts in MS.

pikersam

Jan 22 2006

but, there are 100's of other MSian's that would be better representatives of our relief efforts in MS. Yeah, like those wo actually lost something, or those who helped with resuce efforts.

LatashaWillis

Jan 22 2006

Tom, I'm not sure what the official script of the Pakistani armed forces or police is, but I'm almost certain it's NOT Arabic. Pakistani languages are in no way related to Arabic. In fact, as crazy as it may sound at first, most, if not all, of Pakistan's major languages are more closely related to English than Arabic (Indo-European language family, you know). As for Melton and Pakistan. My main concern is how much direct on-the-scene experience Melton (or at least his most trusted advisors/staff) have with dealing with Katrina evacuees. Though Jackson did get damage from the storm, it was nowhere near the scale of what the Coast and NO got. Perhaps he can give good advice on how communities can absorb more refuguees, but as far as actually dealing with the disaster area itself, Musharraf has a better example much closer to home (Sri Lanka, and even India - enemy though it may be)

Philip

Jan 22 2006

Philip, I was technically pretty close to right, actually. The language of Pakistan is Urdu, a variant on Hindi that is written using the Arabic script. So the language on the bulletproof vest would look like Arabic; only someone who could read the language would be able to tell the difference. Once, back in late 2000 when I was researching a distance learning guide, I phoned Allama Iqbal Open University in Pakistan. I suppose I had assumed that, just like on Star Trek, everybody in other cultures spoke English among themselves. So when I got someone on the phone speaking Urdu, I panicked and immediately said, in broken Hindi (which I'd picked up during my studies of Sanskrit--I actually do have a little bit of the Gita memorized in the original), what I thought was "I don't speak Hindi." The person on the other end of the line sounded very agitated, shouted at me, and hung up. I later learned that I had greeted the poor man with the phrase "I don't eat Hindu children." Oops. Cheers, TH

Tom Head

Jan 22 2006

This is absolutely bizarre, considering how poorly the Melton administration handled the disaster response after Katrina. Doesn't anyone remember the emergency Council meeting called days after the storm, and our open letter to the city to demand that Melton get on the stick and stop hiding out and not dealing with the mess we had here?!? And what about the Business Week article about how badly Melton mucked up the evacuee problem at the Trademart??? I can't imagine what Melton would tell anyone about disaster relief -- to hide out at home, hold a press conference in front of your house (that not all media are told about), and then hope your city adminstrator cleans up the mess? Please. This is about as weird as him talking to journalists of faith about good journalism ... or have I said that already? Truly, truly bizarre. Of late, it feels like we're living in the "Twlight Zone," being that there is such a gap between myth and reality.

DonnaLadd

Jan 22 2006

I later learned that I had greeted the poor man with the phrase "I don't eat Hindu children." Oops. Open mouth. Insert foot.

LatashaWillis

Jan 22 2006

Donna, I figured Melton was actually going to give him tips on moustache grooming. L.W., to make matters worse I'm sure I half-mispronounced everything and stammered a little, so I probably sounded (on top of everything else) as if I was drunk out of my mind. Allama Iqbal being an Islamic religious correspondence school, I can only imagine the admissions officer's reaction... Interesting school, though, and I remember now that they offer instruction in both Urdu and Arabic. Vague memory of master's and certificate programs in "Iqbaliyat" (essentially the study of native Pakistani Islam, starting with the great Allama Iqbal after whom the university was named), Qur'anic studies, and Islamic studies. Inexpensive, and (if memory serves) no residency required. In case any devout Muslims fluent in Arabic or Urdu are reading this... Cheers, TH

Tom Head

Jan 22 2006

Oooo, not so good, eh? ;-)

DonnaLadd

Jan 22 2006

:D I can see it now: MELTON (to translator): "I don't know what he's shouting at me about." TRANSLATOR (to Melton): "He's an admissions officer at Allama Iqbal Open University, and he said something about eating Hindu children. You know anything about that?" MELTON: "He must be from the Free Press. Keep walking!" Cheers, TH

Tom Head

Jan 22 2006

Giggle. Hey, I'd send Adam to cover this one if I could. He shows up everywhere else. ;-)

DonnaLadd

Jan 22 2006

You know this could work in our favor. At least while Melton is gone the city employees will not have to worry about being fired. At least no one will get evicted. Al least we will have a break from broken promises and lies. I hope that if our mayor will take this break away from Jackson, then hopefully he will return with a sense of renewed committment to fulfill some of his promises. I hope that he will see that this city is not as bad as he thinks it is and that he will realize that he dosen't have to re-invent the wheel. As Ladd stated, he handled the Hurricane Katrina situation poorly. Those people might not receive his cowboy attitude too well. They might just let him know that if he cannot help them, then please just leave the country!

lance

Jan 22 2006

Gee, look where our astute mayor was 2 days before Hurricane Katrina. What no press release about your BMI party? Glad to know he wasn't too woried about katrina considering we all expected it to hit MS about a week before it landed! Maybe this is why he was a ghost just before the storma nd just after? Hope you drop some def knowledge on Pres. Musharraf!

pikersam

Jan 25 2006

This trip to Pakistan is pretty suspicious. Pakistan, by the way, is perhaps one of the worst "terrorist" nations in the world and borders Afghanistan which is the worst when it comes to exporting drugs. What experience does Melton have regarding disaster relief? He's barely been in office six months. How can Melton give advice to a leader of a nation while his own city is in economic shambles? This trip doesn't make any sense at all. I believe that the excuse given by Melton's spokesperson is a "red herring". I would like to know the REAL reason Meltion's visiting Pakistan. What we've been told so far is laughable.

Joerob

Jan 27 2006

Has anyone confirmed that it's actually happening? You know how they are about answering questions.

DonnaLadd

Jan 27 2006

From the CIA World Fact Book: "Illicit drugs: opium poppy in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, North-West Frontier Province, and Balochistan Province has rebounded since it was nearly eliminated in 2001; key transit point for Afghan drugs, including heroin, opium, morphine, and hashish, bound for Western markets, the Gulf States, and Africa; financial crimes related to drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption, and smuggling remain problems " I find it hard to believe that this is why Melton is going to Pakistan. However, given the recent uptick of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, I find it hard to believe the US is signing off on his "official visit" even for relief counciling. The last I checked, MS hasn't suffered from a large scale earthquake in our lifetime.

pikersam

Jan 27 2006

Here is the US State Dept's official warning for US Citizens traveling to Pakistan. They actually are advising against it. The JFP should be able to get a list of who is going from the State Dept. through a FOI request. I don't know for sure; but, there is a link to sign up if you are going.

pikersam

Jan 27 2006

The JFP should be able to get a list of who is going from the State Dept. through a FOI request. No! Not another FOI request! You wouldn't believe the info we're trying to pry loose from various places. ;-) But we will indeed see what we can do. We think of ourselves as the Little Paper That Could ... or certainly That Tries.

DonnaLadd

Jan 27 2006

Somehow I just knew he wouldn’t go. I mean, there are no strip clubs in Pakistan.

Rex

Feb 9 2006